| CORE Downtown Visitation Survey Data |
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# of : 107 (106 included in compilation - 1 survey received too late)
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| Question 1: I am the business…. |
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| a) |
Owner |
76 |
71.7% |
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| b) |
Manager |
23 |
21.7% |
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| c) |
Sales Associate |
2 |
1.9% |
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| d) |
Other |
4 |
3.8% |
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| e) |
Not Answered |
1 |
0.9% |
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Question 2: What is the square footage of your place of business?
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Average: |
3,095 |
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High: |
18,000 |
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Low: |
250 |
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Median: |
2,000 |
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Question 3: Do you…. |
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| a) |
Lease |
60 |
56.6% |
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| b) |
Own |
44 |
41.5% |
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| c) |
Not Answered |
2 |
1.9% |
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Question 4: Are you located in a multi-tenant commercial building? |
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| a) |
Yes |
73 |
68.9% |
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| b) |
No |
32 |
30.2% |
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| c) |
Not Answered |
1 respondent |
0.9% |
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Question 5: How long has this business been in Rochester? |
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| a) |
Less than 5 Years |
32 |
30.2% |
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| b) |
6 to 10 Years |
16 |
15.1% |
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| c) |
11 to 15 Years |
10 |
9.4% |
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| d) |
16 to 25 Years |
13 |
12.3% |
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| e) |
More than 25 Years |
35 |
33.0% |
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Question 6: How long has the current owner had the business? |
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| a) |
Less than 5 Years |
31 |
29.5% |
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| b) |
6 to 10 Years |
17 |
16.2% |
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| c) |
11 to 15 Years |
13 |
12.4% |
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| d) |
16 to 25 Years |
15 |
14.3% |
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| e) |
More than 25 Years |
29 |
27.6% |
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Question 7: What types of products and/or services does your business offer? |
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| a) |
Sales of Goods to People |
27 |
25.7% |
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| b) |
Sales of Goods to Business |
3 |
2.9% |
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| c) |
Services to People |
24 |
22.9% |
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| d) |
Services to Businesses |
8 |
7.6% |
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| e) |
Restaurant/Food Service |
18 |
17.1% |
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| f) |
Auto Related |
4 |
3.8% |
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| g) |
Medical/Dental/Legal |
5 |
4.8% |
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| h) |
Finance/Insurance/RE |
16 |
15.2% |
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Question 8: Where do you sell most of your products/services? |
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Average |
High |
Low |
Median |
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| 1 |
Locally (Rochester & region) |
80.3% |
100% |
0% |
90% |
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| 2. |
Rest of NH |
13.4% |
70% |
0% |
7% |
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| 3. |
Outside of NH |
6.3% |
75% |
0% |
0% |
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Question 9: How many separate people are currently employed by this business? |
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Average |
High |
Low |
Median |
Total |
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| 1. |
Full Time |
5.9 |
65 |
0 |
2.0 |
592 |
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| 2. |
Part Time |
3.2 |
45 |
0 |
1.0 |
318 |
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| 3. |
Seasonal |
0.3 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
27 |
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| 4. |
Not Answered - 6 |
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| Grand Totals |
Full Time: 592 |
Part Time: 318 |
Seasonal: 27 |
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Question 10: Does your business have difficulty recruiting qualified employees such as: |
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| a) |
Sales Associates |
19 |
17.9% |
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| b) |
Managers |
5 |
4.7% |
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| c) |
Secretaries/Clerks |
5 |
4.7% |
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| d) |
Professional Other |
12 |
11.3% |
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| e) |
Food Counter/Wait Staff |
5 |
4.7% |
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| f) |
Cooks |
1 |
0.9% |
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| Total reporting recruiting problems: 41 (38.7%) |
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| Total reporting no recruiting problems: 65 (61.3%) |
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Question 11: What are your days & hours of operation? |
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| The answers to this question have been broken down by type of business as defined by Question 7 |
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Hours Per Week |
Weekend hours |
Day of week closed |
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High |
Low |
Avg |
Median |
Sat |
Sun |
Other |
(Average) |
| a) |
Goods to People |
98 |
32 |
55 |
48 |
0 |
14 |
8 |
11 |
| b) |
Goods to Business |
60 |
39 |
53 |
59 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
7 |
| c) |
Service to People |
93 |
15 |
45 |
45 |
8 |
21 |
11 |
4 |
| d) |
Service to Business |
45 |
40 |
43 |
43 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
| e) |
Restaurant |
168 |
34 |
80 |
74 |
0 |
4 |
5 |
21 |
| f) |
Auto Related |
93 |
48 |
64 |
58 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
10 |
| g) |
Medical/Dent/Legal |
50 |
32 |
42 |
43 |
4 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
| h) |
FIRE |
49 |
31 |
43 |
43 |
13 |
16 |
2 |
1 |
Question 12: What is your busiest day of the week? |
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Monday |
25 |
23.58% |
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Tuesday |
2 |
1.89% |
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Wednesday |
1 |
0.94% |
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Thursday |
1 |
0.94% |
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Friday |
26 |
24.53% |
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Saturday |
17 |
16.04% |
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Sunday |
2 |
1.89% |
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No Answer/None |
32 |
30.19% |
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Question 13: What is your busiest time of the day? |
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| There was a wide range of answers to this question, and most businesses did not offer a specific time of the day, but a range. As might be expected, restaurants reported meal hours, especially dinner hours as busiest. Retailers of both goods and services described afternoon or early evening as the busiest time of day more than twice as often as those reporting morning or noon as busy. Professional and FIRE businesses also reported afternoon hours as busier than morning by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. |
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Question 14: On average, how many customers/clients visit your business in a typical week? |
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| The answers to this question have been broken down by type of business as defined by Question 7 |
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High |
Low |
Avg |
Median |
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| a) |
Goods to People |
12,000 |
8 |
959 |
85 |
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| b) |
Goods to Business |
1,200 |
4 |
410 |
25 |
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| c) |
Service to People |
750 |
3 |
114 |
35 |
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| d) |
Service to Business |
100 |
1 |
38 |
33 |
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| e) |
Restaurant |
10,500 |
100 |
1,659 |
625 |
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| f) |
Auto Related |
700 |
130 |
335 |
255 |
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| g) |
Medical/Dental/Legal |
300 |
30 |
126 |
100 |
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| h) |
FIRE |
3,500 |
3 |
438 |
20 |
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Grand Totals: 57,137 |
90 Businesses responding to this question |
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Question 15: Which community events increase foot traffic or sales volume most? |
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| 1. |
Opera House |
16 positive responses |
15.1% |
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| 2. |
Christmas Parade |
12 positive responses |
11.3% |
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| 3. |
Spring Festival |
11 positive responses |
10.4% |
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| 4. |
Other |
13 positive responses |
12.3% |
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| Other Events which were noted: |
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| 1. |
Rochester Fair |
3 |
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| 2. |
Spaulding High Sports |
1 |
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| 3. |
artstream events |
1 |
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| 4. |
Other businesses |
1 |
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| Overall number of noting a positive increase due to events: |
43 |
40.6% |
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| Overall number of noting a no effect from events: |
63 |
59.4% |
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Question 16: Which downtown business do you view as your toughest competition? |
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| 1. |
Number of businesses to name a competitor: |
35* |
32.4% |
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| *Only 25 competitors named are actually in Downtown |
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| Types of businesses named most frequently as competition: |
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| 1. |
Restaurants & Sandwich shops |
9 |
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| 2. |
Banks & Financial |
6 |
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| 3. |
Drug stores |
4 |
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| 4. |
Professional |
3 |
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Question 17: What traits make your business competitive? |
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| Most answered this question and typically the answer was more than one trait. There was a great deal of similarity among the traits listed. Overall, most traits were common to many businesses and seemed to fit into the following categories: |
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| 1. |
Service (personal service, customer service) |
39 |
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| 2. |
Quality (of product or service offered) |
24 |
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| 3. |
Price or value |
22 |
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| 4. |
The product itself |
18 |
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| 5. |
Staff (knowledge or skill) |
15 |
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| 6. |
Longevity or reputation |
10 |
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| 7. |
Contacts and referrals |
5 |
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| 8. |
Convenience |
2 |
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| 9. |
Location |
2 |
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| 10. |
Other |
2 |
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Question 18: What other business in downtown Rochester most complements your business? |
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| 1. |
Number of businesses to name a complementary business: |
42 |
39.6% |
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| Types of businesses named most frequently as complementary: |
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| 1. |
Restaurants/Food |
11 |
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| 2. |
Banks |
10 |
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| 3. |
Arts/Cultural |
5 |
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| 4. |
Health Services |
4 |
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Question 19: What kinds of businesses would you like to see more of in downtown? |
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| 1. |
Offices |
30 |
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| 2. |
Grocery |
14 |
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| 3. |
Miscellaneous Retail Stores |
74 |
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| 4. |
Art |
23 |
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| 5. |
Antiques |
18 |
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| 6. |
Production |
15 |
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| 7. |
Restaurants |
67 |
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| 8. |
Apartments |
18 |
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| 9. |
Clothing |
52 |
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| 10. |
Service (medical/dental/legal, etc.) |
22 |
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| 11. |
Bakery/Deli |
58 |
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| 12. |
Other* |
21 |
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*Coffee Shop |
3 |
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*Entertainment |
4 |
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*Jewelry |
2 |
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*Craft/Hobby/Toy/Sport |
3 |
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*Parking |
2 |
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*Other (Miscellaneous) |
7 |
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Question 20: Please circle one response for each statement that most closely reflects your opinion about the downtown business area. |
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Response options were as follows: Poor, Needs Improvement, Acceptable, Good, Excellent. For compiling the data, each response was given a numeric value: |
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1-Poor 2-Needs Improvement 3-Acceptable 4-Good 5-Excellent |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Avg. |
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| a. |
Customer Parking 9 AM to 5 PM |
29 |
27 |
33 |
12 |
2 |
2.33 |
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| b. |
Customer parking after 5 PM |
9 |
16 |
39 |
23 |
12 |
3.13 |
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| c. |
Signage to direct customers… |
28 |
40 |
23 |
7 |
2 |
2.15 |
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| d. |
Employee parking… |
24 |
13 |
27 |
16 |
20 |
2.95 |
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| e. |
Enforcement of parking… |
14 |
20 |
40 |
16 |
5 |
2.77 |
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| f. |
Appearance of buildings |
19 |
59 |
23 |
5 |
0 |
2.13 |
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| g. |
Snow removal service |
5 |
27 |
38 |
25 |
10 |
3.08 |
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| h. |
Maintenance of streets,… |
12 |
37 |
32 |
21 |
3 |
2.68 |
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| i. |
Nighttime street lighting |
6 |
18 |
53 |
25 |
4 |
3.03 |
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| j. |
Police and fire service |
0 |
6 |
30 |
49 |
20 |
3.79 |
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| k. |
Cooperation of merchants… |
15 |
21 |
28 |
26 |
2 |
2.77 |
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| l. |
Cooperation of Chamber… |
5 |
22 |
28 |
30 |
8 |
3.15 |
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| m. |
Appearance of downtown… |
15 |
56 |
26 |
6 |
1 |
2.25 |
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| n. |
Downtown traffic patterns |
20 |
48 |
26 |
11 |
0 |
2.27 |
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| o. |
Cooperation of Code Enforcement |
4 |
8 |
37 |
30 |
17 |
3.50 |
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| p. |
Cooperation of City Council |
4 |
32 |
28 |
15 |
5 |
2.82 |
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Question 21: Should the City of Rochester…. |
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| a. |
Encourage the development of more retail space downtown? |
78.3% |
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| b. |
Encourage the development of more office space downtown? |
51.9% |
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| c. |
Encourage activities to attract more people to downtown? |
73.6% |
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| d. |
Use Zoning & Code Enforcement to force appearance change? |
42.5% |
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| e. |
Create additional parking for customers and employees? |
67.9% |
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| f. |
Allow more residential development in downtown? |
31.1% |
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| g. |
Allow research or light industrial presence in downtown? |
33.0% |
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Question 22: My business would support the following: |
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| a. |
Encourage and help fund a business district organization… |
40.6% |
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| b. |
Encourage and subsidize more downtown events… |
40.6% |
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| c. |
Facade/interior improvements… |
38.7% |
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| d. |
Change my hours of operation… |
19.8% |
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Question 23: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing the success of your business in downtown? |
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| As with Question 17, most answers were similar. The largest group of either stated "None" or did not provide an answer. |
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| a. |
None or No Answer |
32 |
30.2% |
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| b. |
Parking or Traffic related |
19 |
17.9% |
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| c. |
Vacancies in Downtown/lack of activity |
12 |
11.3% |
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| d. |
Lack of customers/lack of foot traffic |
10 |
9.4% |
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| e. |
Other related to economics or costs |
8 |
7.5% |
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| f. |
Income level of local population |
6 |
5.7% |
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| g. |
Exposure/Visibility |
5 |
4.7% |
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| h. |
Competition |
3 |
2.8% |
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| i. |
Other related to location |
3 |
2.8% |
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| j. |
Lack of support among businesses |
3 |
2.8% |
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| k. |
Other (Miscellaneous) |
3 |
2.8% |
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| l. |
Lack of support from City |
2 |
1.9% |
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| m. |
Work force |
2 |
1.9% |
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Question 24: Which of the following need improvement in the building you occupy? |
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| A total of 38 (35.8%) indicated no improvements necessary or simply did not respond to the question. |
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| a. |
Facade |
22 |
20.8% |
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| b. |
Doors and Windows |
25 |
23.6% |
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| c. |
Signage |
22 |
20.8% |
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| d. |
Awnings |
13 |
12.3% |
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| e. |
Roof |
10 |
9.4% |
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| f. |
Heating or A/C |
20 |
18.9% |
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| g. |
Restrooms |
12 |
11.3% |
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| h. |
ADA Compliance |
10 |
9.4% |
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| i. |
Other |
14 |
13.2% |
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